Virtua Fighter 5 (Playstation 3, 2007)

The first next-gen installment of the Virtua Fighter franchise has a lot to live up to, and it both does and doesn’t meet all the expectations laid on this storied series. The good news is that VF 5 is as tight, polished, and balanced of a release as even the most rabid of fans could ask for. Combat is smooth and fast, and the single-player Quest mode (though admittedly very similar to that of VF 4) is the best single-player experience in the genre. If an iteration on the classic style of fighting games is all you ask, Virtua Fighter 5 will take good care of you. On the other hand, the lack of online play is a sad omission for a PlayStation 3 title, and the basic gameplay formula hasn’t changed a bit. Even so, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to any fighter fan or PS3 owner – it’s not often that you see core mechanics as well-implemented as they are here, and that itself makes for a very entertaining game.